Sunday, February 24, 2013

Board Game Review: Mice and Mystics


On  Mice and Mystics...

I just finished two sessions of Mice and Mystics with my wife and 2 young sons. The mechanics and artwork are superb, but there are a LOT of questions left unanswered by the rulebook and adventure book (called the storybook). Learning the game was daunting with the rulebook alone, but fortunately Plaid Hat provides an instructional video on their site: http://plaidhatgames.com .

The game says it's co-op, and suggests everyone at the table is a player with no need for a GM. When playing the game we found that the game runs a LOT smoother, more quickly, and the players have much  better time when it's run by a pseudo-GM... a concept hinted at, but not fleshed out in the rulebook. In the rulebook version, the pseudo-GM reads the "chapter" (adventure) beforehand, but that's all. I added the duties of reading the story text aloud, gradually revealing the map tiles, placing antagonists, and rolling for antagonists. If you want to know exactly how this was done, leave a comment below and I'll elaborate.

Bottom line: I'd say this game is a MUST buy for any lover of co-op games, dungeon crawling, and The Secret of Nimh (It captures the ambiance of the movie perfectly), even with the required initial FAQ hunting, and the steep price to box content ratio of the base set.

Oh... and the outcome of our games? The dice were not kind to us this day, but tomorrow is another day and we will happily brave the fantastic world of Mice and Mystics again! :)


Game on.

Doc

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Shared Weave Games News

Shared Weave Games news:

Well, more tweaking needs to be done on Over da' Boards after playtesting with Hofer . It never seems to end, though I think I can see the finished product now, and this is a new feeling.

Designed 2 more panels for The Sacred Ice with Benjamin Hofer last night concurrently with the playtest, to further build the pre-launch buffer. I think Chantal Black has the fifth panel in hand for coloring and inking.

Another development: Hosting for the site is now decided, so soon it's point the domains and start building. Thanks to Justin Fitzpatrick for his company's services!